Catholic schools are rebounding to avoid public schools and are attended by several faiths. The tuition is adjusted if one is a parishoner, i.e. less tuition since you are expected to tithe, so it probably works out to the same amount. > > > > > Hello Gabby --it's great to meet you too. I don't know what happened with > > the name thing --I'm sure one William L. Houts is enough for anyone. > > > --Bill > > > On 10/1/2012 10:02 AM, gabbydott wrote: > > > Hello Bill, I noticed that your screen name on the group website is rather > > long. It reads: William L. Houts William L. Houts Lukaeon William L. Houts. > > I was wondering if this was your intention. > > > Maybe yes. Just so much, I do differentiate between heaven and afterlifeand > > their individual usability for corruption. Both terms are somehow > > related to the future, but the access is different. Sorry, I forgot to > > introduce myself. My name is Gabby (short for Gabriele), I am a Protestant, > > my first language is German, and I believe in God. I like to listen to > > other people's stories which is why I have learned to keep my own very > > short. Nice meeting you. :) > > > On Friday, September 28, 2012 7:17:08 AM UTC+2, William L. Houts William > > L. Houts Lukaeon William L. Houts wrote: > > >> I wonder if humans do dream of uncorrupted worlds, in general. You'd > >> think that would be universal, and it does seem to be borne out by > >> Western mythologies, with some exceptions. For instance, the Greeks had > >> Olympus, but except for Heracles no one got to go there; everyone else > >> went to Hades, which was gloomy and boring if you were lucky enough to > >> land there in general population, and terrifying if the gods put you in > >> Tartarus. And the Romans didn't seem to place faith in any sort of > >> afterlife at all, which is one of the main reasons whyChristianity sold > >> like hotcakes. Eastern religions such as Buddhism had various hells and > >> heavens, but they were sort of besides the point: your karma is / was > >> supposed to boil down to nothing and liberate you from the Wheel of > >> Rebirth, which was supposed to put you in Nirvana, which was less a > >> Heaven than it was a Nowhere. And Taoism doesn't have much to say about > >> heavenly afterworlds; its whole point is to make this world more just > >> and balanced and leaves heavens to the individual to figure out. > > >> But as to your question of whether humans long for uncorrupted worlds, I > >> think that besides the Abrahamic religions noone takes them very > >> seriously. And I think they've got a point: I mean, if you're taking > >> your present existence at all seriously, then just what is an afterlife > >> supposed to be about? Are we supposed to be eating bonbons all day and > >> living in some version of American luxury? I'd like to believe in > >> Heaven --which for me looks like a kind of liberal college town, with > >> libraries and funky old cinema houses-- but all of that seems kind of > >> empty if there's no gravitas, no seriousness. Without death, without a > >> final marker which howls at us, Do what you must do NOW and die knowing > >> that you've used your life well--without that, I think heaven would > >> become kind of slouchy and boring, or worse. Unless, of course, what's > >> waiting for us on the other side is something superrational but > >> beautiful, like being absorbed into the godhead, if such there be. > > >> So in answer to your question, I think we do dream of uncorrupt worlds, > >> but if we examine them too closely, they tend to be bustable soap > >> bubbles. And maybe I lack imagination, but I wonder, how could it be any > >> other way? Frankly, I'd like to be told how. I sound sensible about all > >> of this if a little pessimistic, but in reality I'm a scared ex-Catholic > >> who is terrified of death and wants to solve the Big Question before > >> they're performing Last Rites on his sorry ass. > > >> --Bill > > >> On 9/27/2012 7:20 PM, rigsy03 wrote: > >> > I wonder where you put the mythological and religious other-worldlies- > >> > from gods to guardian angels, etc.? Or the construct of Dante's > >> > "Divine Comedy", for instance. Do humans long for uncorrupted worlds? > > >> > On Sep 27, 6:23 pm, William L Houts <[email protected]> wrote: > >> >> I'm with the pragmatists on the question of intelligent alien species. > >> >> Many scientists who speculate on this sort of thing --though there > >> >> really aren't that many of them-- say that such species wouldn't > >> >> resemble anything so comforting as a humanoid physiology, but I think > >> >> they're partly mistaken. Surely there would be surprises in the way > >> >> nature cooks up life on other planets with radically different > >> >> chemistries than our dear old Mama Earth. But I think there's reason > >> to > >> >> suppose that many alien species would resemble us. After all, any > >> >> species we might imagine has to cope with gravity as it evolves. So > >> >> they're much more likely to evolve some form of locomotion which > >> >> involves two, four or six pedal extremities (as Fats Waller calls > >> them) > >> >> rather than three or five: even-numbered legs are less wobbly and > >> more > >> >> amenable to balanced movement which consumes fewer calories. . Also, > >> >> sense organs like eyes and ears are likely to be located in or close > >> to > >> >> a head, as there is survival value in having sense organs located > >> close > >> >> to a brain, or whatever such species might use for brains. Finally, > >> >> everyone in the cosmos requires energy to get going, so they're > >> either > >> >> going to evolve photosynthesis and take their energy directly from > >> their > >> >> sun or suns, or they're going to take their sunbeams indirectly by > >> >> consuming something lower in the food chain. I'm sure there are lots > >> of > >> >> evolution pathways I'm leaving out, seeing as I'm a curious poetrather > >> >> than a serious scientist type of guy, but I think these notions are, > >> as > >> >> Allan named other ideas of mine, sensible provisos. > > >> >> PS. I left out centipedes and millipedes with their scores of legs, > >> but > >> >> I think y'all's get what I'm saying here. > > >> >> --Bill > > >> >> On 9/27/2012 3:57 PM, archytas wrote: > > >> >>> I haven't seen any UFOs and tend not to be much interested in people > >> >>> who claim to have - at least without Bill's sensible provisos. The > >> >>> speed of thought as a brain process is slower than light-speed - but > >> >>> then I'm basically a tropical fish realist. I'd have a bet that no > >> >>> one in this group would really have much of a definition of light- > >> >>> speed and the Ricel curvature tensor, Euler Langrangian and the rest > >> >>> of Einstein's field equations. I mean no offence and don't do much > >> of > >> >>> this science myself. > >> >>> If you point out to a physicist that the people from the future who > >> >>> have invented the time machine are in extraordinarily short supply > >> in > >> >>> our present he may come up with some mathematical guff on the shape > >> of > >> >>> the universe that explains this or makes time travel only possible > >> to > >> >>> the future. I have seen demons - plodding back to camp after a > >> week's > >> >>> endurance exercise with no food for two days I was visually > >> convinced > >> >>> the sentries were vampires but still asked them where the Naffi was. > >> >>> My guess is that we travel through space as primitive life-forms with > >> >>> evolution built-in and waiting to unfold. We may thus have come > >> from > >> >>> a much more advanced civilisation than ours bound by the speed of > >> >>> light, capable of the biological engineering but not space-flightmuch > >> >>> more advanced than our own. Calculations give 28 years as the time > >> to > >> >>> reach the edge of the known universe - but this is the time insidethe > >> >>> ship accelerating to near light speed fairly slowly. Space is not > >> >>> friction free and it's doubtful we or our instruments could take the > >> >>> radiation of light-speed flight. > >> >>> I rather hope there are some nice, genuinely civilised aliens > >> thinking > >> >>> of coming here. In my speculation, intelligent life tends to worry > >> >>> about food chains led by apes as these have been notoriously war-like. > > >> >>> I'm into bees and ants rather than UFOs at the moment. Bees use > >> >>> 'pharma' to combat fungal infections. Ants take slaves - killing > >> the > >> >>> adults of another species and taking the larvae. These slaves then > >> >>> raise the slaver brood. Interestingly, the ant slaves rebel and > >> kill > >> >>> the pupae of their masters - an act that does not favour the > >> >>> individuals a they will die, but does seem to be altruistic in favour > >> >>> of other colonies of the enslaved species. I mention this to > >> suggest > >> >>> science is not a human invention, just something in evolution we are > >> >>> expanding. > >> >>> UFOs remind me of religion generally - people seem to bond around > >> >>> ludic claims about golden salamanders and what cannot be proved. I > >> >>> guess we will find life or past life-sign on Mars. Salvation may > >> come > >> >>> from a mother-ship, but my own feeling is that our inability to > >> >>> develop science as we could is a more important thought experiment. > >> >>> In respect of this problem I recommend 'Bad Pharma' by Ben > >> >>> Goldacre, He finds a �600 billion industry in which more money > >> is > >> >>> spent on marketing than on research and development, where the > >> results > >> >>> of clinical trials of new drugs are massaged, and in which > >> regulators > >> >>> fail to regulate. Papers supposedly by respected academics are > >> >>> ghostwritten by drug companies, and patients' pressure groups are > >> >>> covertly sponsored by pill > > ... > > read more »- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text -
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